Oh Christmas Tree | Story 2
Picking out our Christmas tree this year was as simple as driving down the street, meeting Hotte (the owner of Hop In Christmas Trees), and driving away with our tiny, but robust 3 ft. tree strapped to the roof leaking sap down the windshield. There was something about this tree stand that we wanted to capture, just for fun. Business and plain old being busy kept us away from photographing there until one morning we woke up to snow on the ground and we knew…everything else could wait…we had to go get those photos.Arriving just in time to see the snow on tree limbs before it melted meant walking through a mini winter wonderland as if we were in the forest, not the middle of the city. Our reverie was quickly dismantled when Hotte started up his leaf blower to blow the snow off the trees in order to sell them nice and dry. So instead of snow our focus became Hotte and his morning preparations getting his stand up and running. If there ever was a nicer, more hard worker than Hotte we'd like to meet them. From 9-9 he opens his stand, unloads trees, talks with returning clients (he prides himself on knowing his customers and seeing them come back each year- and who wouldn't! He's one of the nicest people.), stays warm in his mountain of layers and fishermen plastics, drinks a bit of coffee between tasks, and is as jolly as St. Nick himself. He's proud to say he will be growing his own trees this year and schooled us with information about how to groom the trees and the different types he likes to sell.After photographing for a bit, helping watch the stand as Hotte went to get his coffee from next door and feeling peace among these large trees our fingers turned to ice and we called it a day. Thank you Hotte for teaching us and letting us capture your majestic beasts. ~Erik & Marissa
We also had fun taking a bit of video...
(click HERE to go to Vimeo if you can't see the video below on your mobile devise)
[video type="vimeo" id="82597115" width="600" height="300"]
The End.
Happy Holidays!
~Erik & Marissa